His Lost Materials
by GreatKateZonkeyMachine
Summary: Will & Lyra have entered a parallel world to escape their enemies, and found it an inhospitable place. But they can't leave until they retrieve Æsahættr & the alethiometer, taken by dangerous thieves. Now they must span the strange world to get them back.
1. Shots in the Dark

Author's note: **As those of you who follow my profile may already be aware, this is the third of a number of drafts of this accursed chapter—first was my crappy rough draft, which Kahlan Aisling was kind enough to beta edit; then came my second draft, which was written based on K.A.'s suggestions, and which decided it didn't want to live in my computer anymore and randomly vanished from the face of the earth; and this was the third draft I wrote, which is kind of a second-draft-of-the-second-draft, since I had to write a new second draft after my first second draft disappeared.**

**:)**

**Actually, most of you reading this probably don't follow my profile. I wasn't aware of any regulars other than Kahlan Aisling (who is, of course, the stoy's beta) having read HDM and seen ATLA.**

**Many thanks to Kahlan for helping to make this a more fluid, inclusive, exciting, and all-around tolerable chapter.**

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><p>Disclaimer:<strong> <strong>I do not own His Dark Materials or the Avatar* series.<strong>**

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><p>...<p>

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><p>"COME ON, TWINKLETOES, PUT SOME BACK INTO IT!"<p>

Beads of sweat traced the tattoo on Aang's forehead as he tried to reassemble the fragments of rock as fast as possible while still remaining calm enough to Bend. "NOT QUICK ENOUGH!" bellowed his trainer, shattering the rock he had nearly just re-formed.

He hated this exercise. Toph would pull an enormous round boulder out of the ground, and then Aang's job was to do his best to keep it intact while Toph smashed it repeatedly. His brow furrowed with concentration and effort.

Katara and Sokka watched, mildly interested. It was still somewhat of a novelty to see Earthbending, since they had seen precious little of it compared to the other three elements on their travels. Then again, Aang's Earthbending wasn't exactly first-rate.

"OFFENSE!" Toph roared, and switched actions seamlessly, starting to reconstitute the rock she had come close to powdering. Aang slammed the side of his fist into it, and it broke into a dozen pieces. Not fine enough; he grimaced, knowing Toph was going to—

"MORE POWER, TWINKLETOES!" She was a short blind girl, yet she could yell like a mad hog-monkey. She had already repaired Aang's feeble damage and was adding on to it rapidly.

He jabbed at the rock, over and over and over again, but the speed of his destructive bending was hopelessly slow compared to the speed of his trainer. He put all his energy into it, but Toph was just too fast. Soon, he was panting defeated in front of a fully formed boulder.

Toph thrust this boulder into the ground and looked at Aang disparagingly. "You can Earthbend," she said, "but you can't Earthbend like a man."

"I'm _trying_," he said. "Maybe you could go a little easier—"

"_Easier?_ You want me to be all soft and yielding, huh? Soft and yielding like a rock."

"I'm just saying—"

"This isn't Waterbending anymore, Avatar boy," Toph maligned. "Earth doesn't take the shape of its container."

"Maybe Aang needs to take a rest, Toph," suggested Katara.

"He doesn't," said Toph. "He needs to train."

"He trains hard every day. He's worn out," said Katara.

"But we've only been going at it for an hour—"

"That's not what I mean. He hasn't had a moment's peace since Gaoling."

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Toph defensively.

"I'm not talking about you. I mean, first he went about three days with no sleep when those crazy girls were chasing us, and then he immediately started Earthbending training."

"I'm fine, Katara," said Aang. "I can—"

"No you're not," she said. "You need a break."

"He can't exactly take a vacation when Sozin's Comet is months away," said Sokka sarcastically.

"Come to think of it," said Toph, "I'd kind of like a vacation too."

"Didn't you just hear me?" Sokka said. "We _can't_—"

"Maybe I can't take a full vacation," Aang said, "but we can have a mini-vacation, can't we?"

"Actually," said Katara, looking at their map of the Earth Kingdom, "there are a lot of nice-looking spots around here. What if we all pick minivacations?"

"Are you serious?" said Sokka.

"That sounds pretty good," said Toph, ignoring him. "We can each pick a fun little place for a few hours or a day or so."

Sokka rubbed his face. "You are serious."

"Then it's decided," said Katara.

"Great!" said Aang. "Can I go first?"

"'S alright with me," said Katara. Toph shrugged. Sokka just shook his head incredulously.

Aang grinned. "I know the perfect place."

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><p>"Run!" Lyra screamed.<p>

"I'm... trying!" Will panted.

His hand was bleeding again. Already the bandage was soaked, as well as his shirt sleeve and the upper part of his pants. He was white-faced and weak. He _couldn't_ run.

"Come _on!_" Lyra tugged on his arm and pulled him a few feet more. Her tugging, unfortunately, caused the exerted twelve-year-old boy to collapse on the ground. Lyra bit her tongue to stop from groaning in despair; Pantalaimon, as a goldfinch, fluttered about in agitation.

Lyra looked up to see real birds flying out of the trees, alarmed by the approaching mob. Their pursuers were getting closer. They could hear the feral cries, feel the vibrations of feet and heavy sticks on the ground, hear the sharp _crack!_ of sticks and rifles beating against one another in the air. Lyra let out an exclamation of fear. They would never make it at this rate!

"Will," said Lyra earnestly, "you've got to pluck up your strength! Come on, just a little further!" she lied, looking anxiously at the distance they still had to go. Pantalaimon transformed into a large eagle, grasped Will's shirt and attempted to pull him upright.

A gunshot—punctuated by savage cries and chanting of "Kill! Kill! Kill!"—split the night, making Will and Lyra jump. Lyra urged and pleaded with Will, and helped him to his feet. They knew where Will and Lyra were; they were running through the woods, gaining rapidly on the frightened children.

Will stood on quaking legs and ran a little ways. Heartened, Lyra began to run too. But before either of them had gone far, Will's knees buckled and he fell to the ground again. Lyra looked behind her, anguished—and in the split second she did, she tripped over something.

She threw out her hands out to break her fall and shut her eyes at the shock of the impact. Spitting dirt out of her mouth, she then looked up to see what on Earth she had tripped over. But there didn't appear to be anything there. She looked all over, but there was nothing. Not a tree root, not a stone, not a fox hole in sight.

Suddenly, Will gasped. He was staring at Lyra's feet. "What are you looking at?" said Lyra, nonplussed.

He pointed. "Your legs… They're not there!"

"What are you talking about?" said Lyra, standing up.

"Look! Come around here."

Lyra walked over to where Will was lying. She peered at the spot where he was pointing. At first she saw nothing, but then she noticed something she hadn't before: a faint outline in the air, something totally invisible and two-dimensional, yet unaccountably _there._

Will breathed, "It's a window."

Of course! Lyra had accidentally stepped into another world and tripped on the edge of the portal. To Will, it had appeared that her legs had vanished—because she had been lying _behind_ the window.

They couldn't have asked for a better escape. As Lyra paused for Pantalaimon to become a chipmunk on her shoulder, Will slipped noiselessly through the opening in the air and crouched in the forest on the other side—which was exactly like the woods in which Lyra and Pan were standing except for the absence of the constant, distant shine of streetlamps through the trees. He waited for them to follow.

As Lyra rushed toward the window in the air, she heard a small _whoosh_ behind her. Something shot through the air, narrowly missing her arm, and disappeared into the night. Pan chirped in alarm, his fur rippling. She sped up, lunging for the window as figures holding various weapons came in sight.

Will began to close the window with his free hand, but Lyra suddenly grabbed his arm and pointed at the ground in front of the angry mob, where her shoulder bag—with the alethiometer inside of it—was lying severed from its handle, presumably by the object that had shot under Lyra's arm.

"I have to get it!" she cried, and before Will could stop her she had run back into the world of danger and pursuit. She picked up the shoulder bag with Pan fluttering about over her head and tore back for the window, gunshots striking the grass all around her. She leaped through the window and landed in a heap on the grass in the other world; Will immediately began to seal the rip in the fabric of the two worlds. Their pursuers approached, shouting and threatening, and then the window closed for good and they were gone.

Once the sound of the mob was snuffed out, the sound of crickets and other nocturnal creatures became audible. The two of them sat there, panting.

"It's okay, Pan," said Lyra soothingly, stroking her agitated dæmon. "We're safe now. They can't get us."

"Right," said Will, "well, I'm going to open a window into the café so I can get our supplies."

"Wait," said Lyra. "Give them time to go away."

He shook his head. "If we give them too much time, they could raid our sleeping place and take all our things. I have to do this now. I'll just open a window for a second or two, until I can find a good spot. Do you want to build a fire?"

She nodded. As Will began meticulously opening, looking, closing, moving, opening again, she set to work gathering tinder with Pantalaimon. At last, Will found a position that opened into the café in which they'd been staying until they were driven out of that world. When he returned with the rucksack stuffed with food, water and sleeping bags, Lyra had started the fire and was sitting and hugging her knees, staring into it.

Will set the heavy rucksack down and started to put larger wood pieces on top of the kindling. He sat down beside Lyra. Pan glanced up at him. After a few minutes of silence, Lyra spoke.

"I never seen kids like that before," she said quietly—for the people who'd been after them with guns and sticks had indeed been children.

Will said nothing, but took his knife out of its leather sheath and stuck it in the ground angrily. He had earned the knife in a fight which cost him two of his fingers—this mutilation was the so-called "badge of the bearer"—and which had taken place in the otherworldly city of Cittàgazze, a place devoid of adults that had become a sort of gigantic playground for children. Ci'gazze had been overrun with beings the children called Specters, who fed upon the souls of adults but were not interested in—could not even be seen by—children. Will's fight was with a young man named Tullio, who was the older brother of two of these children. After the fight, Tullio was attacked by a Specter and his soul devoured. Tullio's younger siblings feared Will and Lyra, and blamed them for Tullio's worse-than-death fate. As a result, Tullio's siblings gathered a horde of children, armed with sticks and guns, to attack Will and Lyra. He had seen children in such a state before—but never had guns been involved.

Bitterly he took his sleeping bag out of the rucksack and smoothed it out on the grass. He then removed the subtle knife from his person, laying it carefully beside him. He lied down fully clothed.

Lyra shuddered, still looking at the fire. "I thought... When I was at Bolvangar, I thought that no matter how terrible adults could be, no matter how evil and vile and wicked... I thought kids were different."

"You were wrong." Will turned away from her and closed his eyes, trying—in vain, despite his exhaustion—to fall asleep.

Pantalaimon suddenly became a wolf, ears perked, staring intently into the trees. He had sensed something—or someone—nearby.

"What is it, Pan?" said Lyra anxiously, peering into the darkness but seeing nothing.

A split second later, she had her answer. With a rustle and a snarl, a pack of strange creatures suddenly leapt out of the brush. The things were plump and had fluffy striped tails, but they were far from cute; they had fierce red eyes and sharp tusks, and they were all growling.

Lyra screamed and backed away frantically. The movement agitated the beasts: the nearest one let out a sound like an angry tiger and bounded ferociously at her. Will whipped the knife out of its sheath, but Pantalaimon beat him to it. He pounced on the horrible creature and, as the two animals tore at each other's throats, became a massive lion. He roared deafeningly and the entire pack of creatures whimpered and ran off.

Lyra's eyes were wide. "What were those things?" she said, her voice an octave higher than it normally was.

"I don't know," said Will, shaken. "But whatever they were, they were dangerous. This world isn't safe. We should go—"

"Wait, Will," Lyra said pacingly. "We're tired. Shouldn't we at least get a night's sleep before we go into more danger?"

"We're already in more danger, if those animals were anything to go by."

Pantalaimon transformed into a lemur with wide, disconcerting eyes and looked at Will. "There are dangerous animals in the woods in our world, too," he said reasonably. "And in yours, and in Ci'gazze. I don't know if we'd be better off in any of those places; at least nothing _intelligent_ is hunting us in this world."

"Yeah," said Lyra, "like my mother and Lord Boreal."

Will couldn't argue with this. "Are you sure you want to stay here?"

"Yes," said Lyra. "Come on, Will—we've already built a fire and everything!"

"Why are you so keen on this world?"

"I don't know," Lyra said. "Here—let's ask the alethiometer if it's alright to stay here."

She opened the heavy gold instrument's lid and pointed to three symbols around the face: the globe, for _world_; the knight's helmet, for _protection_; and the baby, for _future_.

The answer came instantly: chameleon, followed by moon, followed by anchor, followed by tree. Well, that was easy enough to interpret.

"It says this world is deserted of our enemies, and we'll be safe from the animals if we keep the fire going," Lyra reported.

Will's tenseness subsided at this good news. "All right," he said. "I guess we can stay here—at least until we get some sleep and work out what to do next."

Lyra smiled. Will carefully replaced the knife in its sheath, and they both settled in to their sleeping bags. Pan curled up as a ferret in Lyra's arms, and the pair of them started breathing with slow steadiness almost instantly. The orange glow of their small campfire flickered over the little girl and her dæmon as their human and animal breasts rose and fell in sync. Will closed his eyes and relaxed, feeling secure in a way he had not felt since his first night in Cittàgazze. Try as he might, however, he could not shake his thoughts of wild animals and unknown predators.

He moved the knife a tiny bit closer.

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><p>...<p>

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><p>* The new sequel series coming out this year has been redubbed "The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra," I see. I find this wrong on a number of levels; not only does it make little sense compared to "<em>Avatar<em>: the Legend of Korra," considering that there is clearly no longer a single last airbender, but it also recalls the M. Night Shyamalan adaptation, which is too horrible to think about. James Cameron's movie came out years after ATLA—was it really necessary to do that? I do know that Cameron had apparently been writing the movie for decades. If Cameron has his knickers in a twist about copyright infringement, why didn't he speak up when the _first_ series came out?


	2. Rough Rhinos

Author's Note: **The Avatar wiki has been my best friend through the writing of this story. It really is exceptionally thorough and accurate, and I applaud all those who contributed in compiling it. I used it to get the names and specialties of the Rough Rhinos, and also to consult the Avatar world map.**

**For the record, my beta reader has changed. Credit for this chapter goes to Grammar Defender.**

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><p>Disclaimer: <strong>We just went through this, did we not?<strong>

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><p>...<p>

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><p>Zuko moodily jumped down from the ostrich horse and helped his uncle dismount. Iroh sighed and yawned happily, sitting down on a flat rock nearby. It had been a long day of riding, and they were grateful for the opportunity to stretch their legs and rest.<p>

There was no one else around; the dirt path on which they'd been traveling was seldom used. It was hard and dusty, like most of the land in these parts. Smallish trees surrounded it in an unlikely wood that had grown against the odds in this place. Watching his uncle stretch and smile contentedly, Zuko thought he might take a rest as well...

Suddenly their ostrich horse looked up. Zuko had heard something too—a rustle in the trees on the side of the path. He narrowed his eyes and took a fighting stance.

Iroh noticed. "What now?" he groaned.

Flattening and snapping the trees, a group of large animals charged clamorously onto the path. They slowed down, and Zuko recognized the animals as komodo rhinos. There were five of them, and each one bore an unfriendly-looking rider. They were surrounded.

Zuko snarled and lifted his hands to firebend, but Iroh put a steadyinghand on his shoulder. "Colonel Mongke!" he said amiably. "What a pleasant surprise."

He was addressing the leader of the riders, who had a beaded beard, rings in his nose and ears, and a hostile expression. "If you're surprised we're here," he growled, "then the Dragon of the West has lost a few steps."

"You know these guys?" Zuko hissed.

"Sure," Iroh said calmly. "Colonel Mongke and the Rough Rhinos are legendary. Each one is a different kind of weapons-specialist."

Zuko looked around at the five riders, and saw that each of them did indeed carry a different kind of weapon. And they looked like they were getting ready for something quite different from a peaceful reunion with an old friend.

"They're also a very capable singing group," Iroh added with a brief smile.

"We're not here to give a concert!" spat Colonel Mongke angrily. "We're here to apprehend fugitives."

"Would you like some tea first?" asked Iroh. "I'd love some." He looked sideways at one of the burliest riders, a long-haired man with a spear. "How about you, Kahchi? I make you as a jasmine man. Am I right?"

"Enough stalling," barked the Colonel. "Round 'em up!"

One of the riders threw a heavy ball and chain at Iroh, who turned nimbly and kicked it to the side, where it wound around the foot of a komodo rhino. Dodging two flaming arrows, Iroh slapped the backside of the rhino and it took off running, yanking the chain-thrower off his own rhino. The archer shot a third arrow, at Zuko this time. Zuko incinerated the arrow and burned the archer's bow with a blast of firebending. Colonel Mongke bombarded Iroh with fireballs, failing to see Zuko leap onto his rhino.

Zuko kicked him into the air, and he landed in a heap on the dusty ground. Iroh swiftly mounted their ostrich horse and drove it towards Zuko, who jumped from the rhino to the ostrich horse. The last of the Rough Rhinos still standing tossed an explosive at them, but it missed and hit the ground in front of them, flaring into an immense smoke cloud through which they galloped until they'd left the Fire Nation mercenaries far behind them.

"Always nice to see old friends," said Iroh mildly.

"Too bad you don't have any old friends that don't want to attack you!" Zuko retorted angrily.

Iroh thought for a moment. "Hmm..." he said. "Old friends that don't want to attack me..." Zuko seemed to have given him an idea. "Zuko, there is going to be a change of plans," he said. "Head for the Si Wong Desert."

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><p>By the time Will awoke, the sun was nearly to the top of the sky. His bones felt stiff; he lay unmoving on the forest floor, staring up as the bright yellow light slowly retracted so that he could see the dark green trees around them. The grass made crinkling, brushing sounds under his sleeping bag.<p>

Lyra was still sleeping. The sight of Pantalaimon curled up as an ermine around her neck, both of them breathing steadily, calmed him slightly. He sat up, feeling a bit more at ease. They were safe in this world—it was unfamiliar, to be certain, butat least they had no enemies here.

As if to prove him wrong, it was at that precise moment that a rhinoceros charged into the clearing.

Will shouted in alarm and lunged for the knife, whipping it out of its sheath and scrambling out of the sleeping bag to face the rhinoceros with a snarl of his own. Lyra screamed and Pan jumped to his feet as a bristling wildcat. The rhinoceros was immediately followed by four others, and Will now saw that they were all bearing riders. They were nothing like ordinary rhinoceroses: Their faces were strangely reptilian, and they had long dinosaur-like tails and clawed feet.

One of the riders lifted a wicked-looking blade with a chain attached to one end of it and hurled it at Will. The blade stuck in the ground behind him and the chain knocked him onto his back. With a yell of pain and outrage, he swung the blade of the subtle knife at the chain and sliced through it. Lyra scrambled to her feet and rushed to his side.

The rhinos were circling around them now, boxing them in. Another rider, this one with red war paint on his face, lifted a bow and arrow and pointed it straight at Will's heart. A third rider in an iron mask drew back his hand, and Will saw that he was holding an explosive. The fourth rider held a long spear-like weapon at the ready. Will could see that there was no way out, even with the knife as a weapon.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded. "What do you want with us?"

The riders ignored him. "Ogodei!" the leader of the riders barked, "Kahchi! Search the camp."

The thickest-set two of the five men dismounted their rhinos, leering at Will and Lyra. They began to sift through the rucksack and sleeping bags. "Hey!" Lyra protested. "Stop—"

The archer with the painted face turned his bow to Lyra, and she fell silent at once.

"What's this thing?" growled the darker man. He wore little more than a chain strapped over his torso, and his muscles bulged. He was holding the alethiometer.

"Put that down!" cried Lyra.

The brute tossed the delicate golden instrument up and down, grinning at her. "Looks like it's made of gold," he said to the leader.

"Stop it! That's an incredibly fragile—!"

"Let me see that." The leader got down from his rhino's back and inspected the alethiometer. "Ve-e-ry nice," he said, pleased. He turned to the children. "So... What's a couple of kids like you doing out here in the woods, huh? And with a trinket like this."

They said nothing.

"Could be criminals," said the spear-wielder. "You heard of them kids hidin' in the woods and attacking Fire Nation settlements?"

The leader nodded. "Maybe that's what they are. But it don't matter anyway, because if they don't want to tell us we'll just have to make them tell us."

Will noticed that, strangely, the leader was not armed at all. He had nothing but his fists—which were considerable, but nowhere near as powerful as explosives or chains.

Meanwhile, Lyra was thinking about the alethiometer's promise in bafflement; hadn't it said...? _Deserted of our enemies..._ Well, these certainly weren't any enemies they'd had before now... _Safe from the animals..._ And they certainly weren't animals.

As the rhino-riders debated, Will stamped discreetly on Lyra's foot. "What?" she hissed.

"Be ready to run," he said through his teeth. "When I say..."

"But what about the alethiometer?" Lyra replied anxiously.

"We'll come back for it."

"...in pretty good shape," one of the riders was saying. He was holding Will's sleeping bag like someone reading a map. "These would fetch a reasonable price at the oasis."

While the men were distracted, Will was making tiny movements in the air with his knife. He forced himself to submit to the state of calm intent that would allow him to cut into Cittàgazze.

"And what about the kids?" said Ogodei. "Should we keep 'em as slaves, or do you think—"

The subtle knife slashed through the air as a grey blur, slicing open the fabric of the world. There, floating in nothing in the midst of the astonished rhino-riders, was their ticket to liberation.

"Let's go!" Will shouted, and launched himself at the window. One of his legs was already in the hot Italian city when he heard Lyra scream out behind him. He whirled around, knife in hand.

The leader of the rhino-riders had Lyra by the hair, yanking her towards him as she strained for Will. Will stepped back into the forest world and raised his knife, but Pantalaimon got there first. A small grey mouse scuttled out of Lyra's pocket and leapt into the air—and then there was a snarling puma facing the rhino-riders' leader. Ears flat against his tawny head, fangs bared, pupils black slits, Lyra's dæmon pounced forward—but the rhino-rider, startled as he was, had a surprise up his own sleeve.

He punched his fist at Pantalaimon, but his knuckles didn't make contact with the puma's body—nor were they intended to. Instead, a huge jet of brilliant orange flames erupted from his hand and shot at Pan. Lyra and Will cried out with shock; the fire licked over the puma's shoulders, and Lyra gripped her own shoulders in pain.

Terrified, Pantalaimon became a quail and fluttered back into the safety of Lyra's pocket. The rhino-rider had Lyra by the hair again, and he put one hand to her neck.

Will started forward, but the rhino-rider yanked on Lyra's hair more firmly and said, "Not another step, boy, or I will roast her!"

Will came to an immediate halt. He was torn: What could he do? He had the knife, but if he made a move with it Lyra would be set on fire.

"That's right," the rhino-rider sneered. "Now bend down, nice and slowly, and put that knife on the ground."

Even though there was nothing he wanted to do less, Will reluctantly hunched over with deliberate slowness, placed the subtle knife in the wet grass at his feet, and let go of the handle.

"Yeh-Lu!" the leader barked, gesturing at the masked man with the explosives.

"Yes, Colonel," said the man in a metallic voice through his mask, dismounting his rhinoceros. He approached Will warily and picked up his knife. Against every instinct, Will did not stop him.

"Well, well," said the Colonel. "This makes things interesting. Where in the world did you get a knife like that, kid?"

Will glared at him.

"And you, missy,"—the Colonel shook Lyra's arm roughly—"That's quite an animal friend you've got."

"What do you think we should do with them?" asked the swarthy man who had found the alethiometer.

"Hmm," said the Colonel, stroking his goatee. "They're obviously valuable—but they could be dangerous. We'll keep 'em for now, as well as their knife."

Will was utterly baffled and badly frightened. What kind of person could shoot flames out of his fingertips? And, more importantly, how would they get out of this mess, without the knife or the alethiometer?

The Colonel was now peering intently at the window Will had opened. He began to pace in a circle around it. "You can't see it from behind!" he reported.

"What _is _it?" asked one of his cronies.

"I don't know," said the Colonel, "but whatever it is, it's not right. Look at that," he said, pointing at the grass on the other side of the window. "Don't it just look...odd?"

"Yeah..." Kahchi murmured. He knelt in front of the window—and froze. "Colonel Mongke, you wanna take a look at this!"

The Colonel crouched beside Kahchi and looked through the window. They were staring at the cityscape of Cittàgazze. "That's not trees..." he said slowly.

Suddenly he whipped around and seized Will gruffly by the collar. "What did you do, boy?" he growled. "What is that thing?"

Will remained silent, and Colonel Mongke struck him viciously across the face. Lyra made a little whimpering sound.

"Colonel!" the face-painted archer cried out. "Look what's on the other side."

Colonel Mongke threw Will to the ground and went to see what the archer had seen.

"What's that?" he said.

"What?" said Ogodei.

"Look."

The rhino-riders all squinted through the window. Will couldn't see anything, but he thought he knew what the riders were seeing.

"Just heat distortion," said the archer.

"I don't think so," said the Colonel. "There's something alive out there. You!" he barked at Yeh-Lu. "Go and see what they are. We'll look after the brats."

The man in the metal mask obediently stepped through the window—causing a collective gasp from his fellow riders. Will looked away; he had seen quite enough, and he knew what was going to happen next.

Soon there came the sounds of struggling and Yeh-Lu's strangled cries. In his mind's eye, Will could picture him standing in an ethereal haze, making awful gurgling noises as the Specter sucked away his consciousness.

"Yeh-Lu?" said Colonel Mongke in alarm. "YEH-LU!"

He roared and ducked through the window himself. A bright orange light shone through the window, and the heat of the Colonel's fire wafted over them. Lyra wanted to see what was happening, but she was being restrained by one of the riders and couldn't see through the window. Several times, the roar of flames and a flash of orange light came through—and soon Colonel Mongke was stumbling back into the clearing, panting and ashen-faced.

"Yeh-Lu's...gone," he spat. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but he's not talking. He won't even look at me. It's like that... that _thing_...killed his spirit. He's as good as dead."

Slowly, the utter shock on his face morphed into anger. He lunged at Will, shaking him violently. "What did you DO?" he roared. Will did not answer, and the Colonel threw him back down disgustedly.

"The Fire Lord needs to know about this," he said. "We're taking these brats and their knife to the Fire Nation right away. As for this,"—he glanced at the alethiometer—"we can sell it to the Beetle-Head Merchants in the desert."

"_Sell it?_" cried Lyra, outraged. "You don't—"

"Shut up!" barked the Colonel. "Someone gag her, will you?"

Will gave a shout of anger as the spear-wielding man tied a cloth over Lyra's mouth tightly.

"You really think we'll be able to get an audience with the Fire Lord?" asked another of Colonel Mongke's henchmen.

"Considering everything…" Colonel Mongke looked at the knife, the window, the Specter, and Pantalaimon. "Shouldn't be too hard."

Will was even more confused. What was a fire-lord? He looked around. There was no help to be found; they were seemingly the only human beings in this forest. Pantalaimon trembled in Lyra's pocket; the window was suspended in the air, so close, mocking them. Lyra and Will looked at one another and each saw fear and hopelessness in the other's eyes.

"Right," said Colonel Mongke. "Kahchi, take the boy."

The pale brute swept up behind Will and grasped his shoulders in a painfully tight grip.

"Ogodei, Vachir—stay by that portal. Make sure nothing goes in or out."

The archer and the swarthy man with the chains assumed guard positions on either side of the window, glaring at it apprehensively. The rhinos were becoming restless now, as though they sensed that they were about to head out again.

Lyra was being dragged, kicking, screaming into her gag, towards one of the rhinos by Colonel Mongke.

"Let go of her!" Will yelled, struggling against Kahchi's grip. "Lyra!"

"Www!" Lyra cried back.

Mongke was mounting his rhino now, forcing Lyra into a seating position behind him. "Follow me," he ordered Kahchi. "We're going to the harbor—now."

Kahchi forced the fighting boy onto his own rhino and took hold of the reins. "Lyra! _Lyra!_"

The rhinos hurtled out of the forest clearing, away from the window and its guardians. Will and Lyra were now heading into more danger than they could ever have imagined.

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><p>...<p>

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><p>AN: <strong>In this chapter, t<strong>**here were two hints at a major upcoming plot twist involving a character you know from Avatar. Did you catch them?**


	3. The Desert of the Dead

Author's Note:** For clarity's sake, this fic takes place around the time of the Book 2 episodes "The Library" and "The Desert" in the Avatar world—the Gaang is about to go on "mini-vacations," Zuko and Iroh are about to get ferry tickets to Ba Sing Se from the Order of the White Lotus, and Toph's bounty hunters are about to take a detour to go after Zuko. In His Dark Materials, the fic begins late in **_**The Subtle Knife**_**, when Lyra and Will are chased by a mob of wild children in Ci'gazze; Serafina Pekkala is leading a witch search party and Lee Scoresby is traveling with Stanislaus Grumman (a.k.a. John Parry).**

**Sorry this chapter is a bit short.**

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><p>Disclaimer: <strong>This isn't as amusing as it used to be.<strong>

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><p>...<p>

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><p>Will slept. Lyra didn't.<p>

Nauseated by her fear, anger, and the lurching ride atop the komodo rhino, there was no way she could sleep. All hope was lost if the alethiometer and the knife were lost, and Lyra could see no way to prevent that. They knew hardly anything about this world—how many other surprises were in store? They should never have stayed here. This was her fault.

She looked over at Will beside her (the road was wide enough for two rhinos to run abreast). His face was intense and unhappy as he slept, and even in unconsciousness he looked averse to the rider holding him. His hand was clenched on his waist, where the knife would normally be—but it was not there. It was with Colonel Mongke. Lyra felt sickened.

After about three hours of hard riding, they seemed to have come to the end of the forest, giving way to a bare, rocky plain with occasional low cliffs. Some minutes later, they rode around the edge of a cliff and suddenly the land in front of them was laid bare to the horizon.

It was the epitome of desert. Golden dunes of sand rolled for endless miles ahead and to the sides. Its emptiness was complete; not even a cactus could be spotted in the ocean of sand from here. Lyra's eyes widened in awe.

Colonel Mongke looked at her expression. "Never been here before, have you?" he said. "Welcome to the Si Wong Desert. Also known as the Desert of the Dead."

Lyra could see why it would be called that. The absence of life out here was such that even the rhinos and their riders seemed to become...less.

They rode until Lyra could see a tiny sand-colored village of some sort a little ways forward. There was a strange white-blue glow in the middle of the village. Lyra squinted, but was unable to determine what it was.

The entire party of rhinos rode in. The place couldn't even be called a village: it was a ring of clay hovels—there couldn't be many more than ten—surrounded by a low mud wall, with an open space in the middle. The few people, dressed in rags and looking miserable, regarded the Rough Rhinos with nervousness but not surprise. A number of unfriendly-looking men with white garments wrapped round their heads were skulking about. Lyra saw that the white-blue glow she'd seen from afar was a large chunk of ice in the middle of the ring; a frozen geyser or fountain that was now steaming in the heat and given a blinding brightness by the sun.

The most noticeable and lively people in the place were a group of men who wore strange green headdresses that looked rather like huge beetles. Lyra remembered the Colonel saying something about "Beetle-Head Merchants." Presently the Colonel and his men dismounted their rhinos and hitched them to posts, leaving Will and Lyra tied up in their saddles.

"Hello, gentlemen," grinned Mongke. "Up for a trade?"

"What do you have to offer?" asked one of the merchants in the beetle hats.

Mongke sold the sleeping bags and supplies for thick, odd-looking coins with square holes in them. The merchants, of course, regarded the big rucksack with interested confusion; this world had no materials like it. Finally, Colonel Mongke took out the alethiometer; it sparkled in the sunlight.

At this, Lyra cried out in protest. "Nmm," she said desperately through her gag. "Plmms!"

One of the Beetle-Head Merchants took the alethiometer and examined it. "Very nice," he mused, "But what does it do?"

"Er..." said Colonel Mongke, "it... it's a compass."

"A compass to what? The needle is moving."

"It...er...it...points to the strongest chi nearby. Yeah..." The Colonel smiled as this lie came to him. "Rumor has it, it can be used to find the Avatar."

A second merchant raised his eyebrows. "A compass that leads to the Avatar? Interesting."

The first one was still skeptical. "But what do all these other needles do?" he inquired. "And these symbols—"

"Look," said Colonel Mongke angrily, "it's gold and ivory. What more do you want?"

"That's true," said the merchant. "These materials would fetch a pretty price from anyone."

The Colonel smiled. "Then we understand each other."

The men began to haggle over Lyra's precious alethiometer. She wept silently and angrily at it, but there was nothing she or Will could do. The fact that no one took any notice of two children tied up on the rhinos' backs was evidence that there was no help for them here. So all she could do was watch as the money changed hands and the merchants took her most prized possession away.

The merchants left. Colonel Mongke secured the satchel of money to his rhino and mounted it, sitting in front of Lyra. Her mouth was still gagged, and her wrists were bound together with rope. Rope also tied her legs to the rhino.

"Come on," said Colonel Mongke to the others. "Our moneybags are nice and jingly now. We'll buy some provisions and then head out to port."

"We gonna sell the kids to somebody?" asked Kahchi.

"No," the Colonel replied. "Fire Lord Ozai will need to question them."

Though the title held no meaning for Lyra, something about it made a shiver go up her spine. Whatever or whoever this Fire Lord was, Lyra didn't think she wanted to meet him.

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><p>The merchants were not able to sell the alethiometer immediately after receiving it from the Rough Rhinos. The sleeping bags, supplies, and even the strange sack sold easily, but there were few people at the oasis who even had the money the Beetle-Head Merchants charged for such an intricate gold artifact.<p>

So they began to get the word out. The merchants told intriguing tales of a mystical compass that led to the Avatar, and those who heard told it to others in a bar, or while traveling. Soon, most of the oasis had heard of what was dubbed "the Avatar compass." The savvy Beetle-Head Merchants found a prospective buyer relatively quickly after that.

He was a rich man—the son of a successful businessman from the Fire Nation. In any case, he did not seem particularly intelligent, and swallowed the story of the Avatar compass without difficulty. The merchant who sold it to him had a feeling that the shiny, fancy gold item would have fetched his money no matter what they told him. They didn't worry about the consequences of their story; why should they? If the compass didn't really do the things they said, no one could deny the intrinsic value of the materials it was made of. And the idea that it led to the Avatar had started with Colonel Mongke anyway, not them.

The rich, foolish man who bought the alethiometer boasted of it, and those who'd heard about it before continued to spread the fascinating idea of the Avatar compass. The rumors and stories grew and multiplied. Not long after the Rough Rhinos took Lyra and Will away, two men from a faraway town visited the oasis. They quickly learned of the Avatar compass in the possession of someone in the oasis.

"I'm quite certain Toph is with the Avatar," said Master Yu. "We could use this compass to find—"

"There's no such thing as an _Avatar compass_, you idiot," Xin Fu spat.

"There could be."

"Are you really this gullible?"

"Well, you were the one who wanted to go after those Fire Nation traitors."

Xin Fu smirked. "Oh, we _are_ going after those traitors. They're right there in the cantina. Did you see the kid's face? His left eye was scarred—that's the exiled prince from the Wanted poster. We're going to get that bounty."

"We could use the money to buy the compass!"

"If you say something about that compass again, I'm going to knock you out."

So rumor of the Avatar compass continued to spread. Many were skeptical, but some believed the story, and some just liked good entertainment or something to speculate about. The tales went around the oasis and surrounding parts, until finally it reached the ears of three girls travelling the Earth Kingdom, led by a Fire Nation princess.

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><p>...<p>

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><p>AN: <strong>Again, sorry for the shortness. As compensation, next chapter will hopefully be out quite soon.<strong>

**Oh, one more thing - I no longer have a beta reader. Hereafter, these chapters are just me.**

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><p><strong>Preview of Chapter Four ("The Princess of the Fire Nation"): <strong>_Azula walked over to the spot where Will was lying in the dust. His heart began to pound._


	4. The Princess of the Fire Nation

Author's Note: **Ah, here you are. A speedy update **_**and**_** a long chapter. My hope is that this chapter will make you hear Azula's theme music playing in your head. Please let me know if it does—it will make me very happy. (If it doesn't, try reading with the actual music playing on Youtube in another tab. Just search "Avatar soundtrack Azula" or something like that. Should be fairly easy to find.)**

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><p>...<p>

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><p>The rhinos were thundering down the forest path single-file. It was hot and dry; Will's face was plastered with muck in the pattern of his dried sweat. He was tied to the rhino behind the man called Kahchi, and the soreness in his pelvis and legs was screaming.<p>

"Where are you taking us?" Will demanded.

"Shut up," grunted Kahchi. "Unless you want to be gagged same as your girlfriend."

Lyra was, indeed, still gagged as she rode along in front of him. She looked quite as miserable as Will felt. Neither of them had had any food or water in more than twenty-four hours. Only two sensations remained at the moment: weary misery, and fear clawing at their insides.

Suddenly, a large black something ran out in front of the rhinos. All of them skidded to a halt, bellowing in alarm and tumbling over one another. The forestry around the path was ravaged as giant animals fell and writhed about. Lyra, Will, and every one of the riders were all thrown to the ground like ragdolls.

The rhinos were disciplined, and besides, they were not flighty creatures by nature; they didn't stampede or flee in outrage. They simply got to their feet and snorted rapidly, shuffling their feet, looking shaken and indignant. Their riders, on the other hand, were considerably more ruffled. Colonel Mongke leapt to his feet and yelled in a voice contorted with rage: "WHO _DARES_—?" But then his voice was utterly extinguished. His eyes grew wide.

The things that had intercepted them were in fact three more riders—young women, perhaps in their late teens—each mounted on what looked like a gigantic black salamander. Colonel Mongke's astonished gaze was fixed on the rider in the middle, who was further forward than her companions on either side.

At the sight of her, every rider sank to his knees and bowed so low that his face was in the grass. They did not rise. Will and Lyra looked at each other.

"Well, well, well," said the newcomer. "If it isn't the Risible Rhinos." Her voice was like nothing either of the children had ever heard: loftiness, sadism and a dangerous amount of cunning.

She dismounted from her steed. Her face added to their impression of her: clever golden eyes under slender, sharp brows. It was a calculating, cruel face.

The children exchanged another glance. She had barely spoken five words, and they knew that this was an enemy they did not want.

"Look at this mess. Piteous," she said with supreme disdain, walking delicately amongst the kneeling men. Unlike Mrs. Coulter, this girl offered no pretense at courtesy—nothing but undisguised domination.

"My humblest apologies, Princess," said Colonel Mongke. "We did not—"

"Did I tell you to rise?"

"No, Princess." Colonel Mongke, who had been about to stand up, immediately sank to the ground once more. "My humblest apologies," he said again.

The girl laughed scornfully. "It's difficult to imagine something more humble than your apology, Mongke," she scoffed. "Or the sight before me."

Taking this as a cue, the riders immediately rose and began to sedate their rhinos. The princess didn't stop them this time. She stood surveying the scene, and her burning gaze lingered on the two dirty and tied-up children lying on the ground. Her stare was like cold fire, if that was possible.

The other two girls slid off their own lizards. "Wow," said the one at the leader's right hand. Her voice was girly and cheerful. She sported a waist-length brown braid. "You scared those guys silly!"

"Yeah," said the girl to the leader's left, whose hair was sleek and black, in a dry tone. "They're completely bowled over."

"Princess, we were far out of order to block your path," said Colonel Mongke.

"Block our path?" The first girl laughed again. "I assure you, Colonel, if you had blocked our path I would not be in such a good mood. As it happens, I've been looking for you."

The fear in Colonel Mongke's face was evident. "L-looking...for me, Princess?"

"Yes," she intoned. When she was not angry, the girl's voice and face held a subtle, perpetual smirk of condescension. "I hear you've been spreading rumors about a so-called 'Avatar compass.'"

Colonel Mongke gulped audibly. "I—we—uh..."

"Relax, Colonel," said the girl, sounding amused. "I know perfectly well that this Avatar compass is a load of ostrich horse dung. What I want to know is—"

Lyra couldn't help it; at the words "ostrich horse dung," she snorted.

The girl shot her a piercing look. "Who are these captives?" she asked brusquely.

"We found them in the woods, Your Highness. They were in possession of the, er, compass. And..." Colonel Mongke glanced at Will. "If I may..."

The frightening girl allowed him to whisper into her ear. It seemed to go on for an extremely long time, during most of which she was staring intently at Lyra and Will. When he finally finished, the girl looked very thoughtful.

"That is _very_ interesting," she said quietly.

"We were on our way to the homeland, Your Majesty," said Mongke. "We intended to bring them to the Fire Lord."

"Don't be so hasty, Colonel Mongke," said the girl. "Tend to our mongoose dragons. I want to hear more about this."

Colonel Mongke ordered his henchmen to tether the girls' lizardlike mounts.

"Very well," said the girl. "I'll speak to the boy first."

Colonel Mongke looked surprised. "Speak to him?"

"Did I stutter, Colonel?"

She walked over to the spot where Will was lying in the dust. His heart began to pound.

"Who are you?" she said bellicosely.

"My name is William Parry," Will replied, his chin going up.

The girl frowned at this. Will cursed in his mind, realizing the mistake he'd just made; he should have known the names in this world would be different from his own. She went on without pursuing the names further, however. "You're the one who had the knife?"

He hesitated, nodding finally.

"What were you doing out in those woods?"

"We were just camping," said Will. "We were minding our own business—and then those..." His voice shook with rage.

"Choose your words carefully, boy," growled Mongke.

"Those..._men_...attacked us and raided our belongings."

"And you attempted to escape by summoning an evil spirit?" said the young woman.

Will didn't know how to respond. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure which she was referring to—the Specter, or Pantalaimon. He simply stared at the woman with a look of nonplussment.

"Do you have anything to do with the Avatar, boy?" she asked.

Will had no inkling of what she meant by "Avatar," but it was clear from her tone what the best answer for him would be. "The Avatar? Of course not!"

"This compass—was it yours?"

"It was his friend who had the compass thing, Princess," put in Colonel Mongke.

The girl glared at Will. "If her story is any different from yours," she said menacingly, "I promise you will both be dearly sorry."

The girl stood up with an impatient expression on her face and moved on to crouch by Lyra. "Your turn," she said. She removed Lyra's gag, which smoldered in her hand.

Lyra spat it out contemptuously. "Let us go!" she demanded. "You en't got no right to treat us like this!"

The girls's gold eyes flashed with danger. "I'm going to assume that you don't know who you're speaking to. I," she said, tossing her hair, "am Azula, daughter of Firelord Ozai, princess of the Fire Nation, and accustomed to being addressed with respect."

Lyra pretended to look mortified. "My apologies, princess," she said, bowing her head. "Please forgive me."

The princess nodded. "That's better." She leaned forward. "Now tell me _your_ name."

Lyra's brain was whirring. She had baited the girl into revealing her own name, so now she had an example of what names in this world were like. Fabricating a name based on Azula's, Lyra said "I'm Zumana."

Colonel Mongke bent and whispered else something in the princess's ear. Without warning, Azula brought her hand up and slapped Lyra's face hard. "Tell me another lie," she said in a low voice, "and the next one will be flaming. If your name is Zumana, then why did William call you 'Lyra'?"

Lyra didn't utter a sound.

"Now, _Lyra_, why does William care so much for you?"

Lyra glanced at Will. "We're brother and sister," she said.

Azula, who would have killed her own brother in a heartbeat, snorted. "And who are your parents?"

"Their names are, er—"

"Not their names—_who_ are they? Are they important? And why are you not with them?"

Princess Azula was a practiced discerner and usually able to detect lies when someone told them to her. But Lyra was a match for her. "We we're travelling nomads," said Lyra, inventing as she spoke. "We have been for generations."

Azula sniffed. "My friends tell me you were in possession of an object—a very unique instrument rather like a compass. How ever did you acquire such an item?"

"Probably stole it," muttered Azula's black-haired friend.

Lyra looked at Azula's friend coldly. "It was given to me by my mother. In our family, it's traditional for the children to receive gifts from the parents at their coming of age."

"When was your coming of age?" Azula said.

"At our twelfth birthday," replied Lyra. "It's always when the kids turn twelve years old. The fathers present the sons with gifts, the mothers present the daughters with gifts, and then the kids go out on their own to find a mate and continue the tradition, keep the clan going."

By now, Colonel Mongke's nose was wrinkled with distaste. "Barbarians..." he muttered.

Azula ignored him. "And what would this family be?" she said. "What are you called?"

"People call us Silvertongues," Lyra replied.

"Silvertongues?" Azula repeated mockingly.

"Yeah," Lyra said. "Because we're a mercantile clan, see. We go from village to village, and we barter. We got the name Silvertongue 'cause we're so skillful at haggling. So people know, see, if there's a Silvertongue in town there's going to be a lot of trading."

Princess Azula had come to the conclusion that these crude folk were nobody important (which was, of course, Lyra's plan), and instead asked, "Your brother—what was his coming of age gift? What did his father give him?" Her voice lowered. "Was it this knife?"

Lyra hesitated, unsure what to say. But she hesitated a second too long, and she knew that if she denied it they would know she was lying. "Yes," she said.

"And how did it make the window in the air that Colonel Mongke speaks of?"

Lyra put on a confused face, and then seemed to suddenly understand. "Oh! The _knife_? No, no, the knife didn't do that."

Colonel Mongke growled. "I know what I saw," he said.

Azula looked at him, and then back at Lyra. "If the knife didn't create that opening, then what did?"

Lyra tried to think of something that would point away from both the artifacts and the children. "It was a crystal gem we found in the forest," she invented.

"Oh?" said Azula. "And where is this gem now?"

"We..." Lyra pretended to look defeated. "We dropped it back in the clearing. We didn't want them"—she gestured at the rhino-riders—"to have it."

Azula looked her directly in the eyes for an uncomfortably long time. Then she stood up, held her hands apart, and clapped them together.

As she did so, flames fanned out suddenly, billowing in Lyra's face. She screamed and scrambled backwards. Will yelled out in fear and anger. Even the Rough Rhinos flinched; these were not normal flames. They weren't orange and yellow like the flames Colonel Mongke produced—they were a vivid, intense blue.

Azula smiled. "As you can see, my Firebending is much more powerful than that of the Colonel—or anyone else you will meet, for that matter. It can blast through solid stone, and it can certainly convince you to tell me something other than that pack of lies."

Lyra just looked at her venomously.

"Also, let's not forget there are two of you," said Azula offhandedly. "Which means I can afford to kill one."

When Lyra still remained silent, Azula conjured more blue fire into her palm and lifted it to attack—

"Stop!" shouted Will. "Please! Yes, it was the knife! The knife cut the window in the air!"

The fire disappeared; Azula turned to look at him.

"It's a good thing you have a truthful brother, at least," she said to Lyra. "He just saved your life."

She addressed Colonel Mongke and his accessories: "Up until now," she said loudly, "you have all been freelance mercenaries. I decree that you are now in my personal service. You will do everything that Mai, Ty Lee and I command. And right now, I am commanding you to lead us to the place where all this occurred."

Will and Lyra were hauled back onto different komodo rhinos. The trio of young women remounted their lizard-steeds. As the group set off back the way they had come, astride their various mounts, Will saw his own fear reflected in the faces of Lyra, the Rough Rhinos, and even a shadow of it in the faces of the girls Mai and Ty Lee.

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><p>"So this is the window," said Azula, peering at it intently. "Intriguing. It doesn't seem to be there at all from the back. And from the front... intriguing," she said again.<p>

Colonel Mongke pulled out Will's knife, still sheathed. "This is what the boy used to open it."

"Let me see that," said Azula's black-haired friend, holding out her hand.

"Careful," said Will dryly. "Don't cut yourself."

The girl snorted. "Believe me, kid, I know how to handle knives. I could hit you with one exactly between the eyes."

"If you say so," said Will indifferently.

"Don't make them angry, Will," Lyra whispered.

The girl pulled the subtle knife out of its sheath and examined it, starting at the hilt. "These are weird carvings," she remarked. "It looks like a person with wings." She moved on to the blade, examining it from the side, from the edge, and finally from the tip. She looked to be in danger of cutting her eyes. "Two different metals," she observed. "And so fine... so sharp..." She slowly brought her finger up to touch the edge. Will held his breath—the knife could cut badly at the slightest touch—but for some reason she decided against it. She put her hand back down at her side and said, "I've never seen a knife like this before."

"Why don't you keep it, Mai?" suggested Azula. "Looks like you could make use of it."

"I don't know..." Mai said, still looking at the knife in fascination. "I could definitely _throw_ it well enough."

"Princess Azula!" called one of the Rough Rhinos suddenly. "One of them is here!"

Azula went quickly back to the window to see what the man had seen. Will and Lyra couldn't see it, but they knew that there must be a Specter on the other side of the window.

Both of Azula's companions crowded around to look in as well. "What _is _that thing?" said Mai, sounding repulsed and attracted at the same time.

"Where is it?" said the third girl, the one with the long brown braid.

"It's right there," Azula replied, pointing. "Right in front of you."

"I don't see anything."

Azula frowned. "It's right there, Ty Lee!" she said. "Look."

Ty Lee strained to see what the others saw clearly, but the only thing out there to her eyes was Yeh-Lu, standing dead in life on the grass.

"You really can't see it?" said Mai.

"See _what_?"

"It's like a shimmer..." Mai looked back at through the window, squinting at the Specter. "Like a curtain or something, floating through the air. It's clear...but it's _not_ clear."

Ty Lee looked utterly bewildered. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Suddenly, Azula moved. Shocking everyone else present, the princess stepped right through the window—to meet the Specter.

"Princess!" cried Colonel Mongke. "You must not—"

"Silence," Azula said.

She stood in the grass of the other world, facing the Specter inscrutably, and it moved steadily towards her. When the Specter was so close she could make it out properly, she lifted her hand—slowly, almost experimentally—and shot a blast of fire at the thing.

The flames did absolutely no damage to it. On the contrary, they disappeared on contact with it. The Specter was absorbing Azula's firebending like it was nothing. Azula did not back away, however. She had noticed something odd—and now the others were beginning to notice it too.

The Specter wasn't moving.

Those who could see it realized that it _wasn't_ absorbing her firebending like it was nothing—it was absorbing her firebending like it was _food_. Colonel Mongke let out a long breath. Mai shook her head in wonderment.

Azula shifted her aim slightly, so that the stream of fire moved to the left about one foot. The Specter moved with it.

"They eat fire?" said Mai.

"They eat bending," said Azula. With a triumphant smile on her face, she stepped back through the window.

Will and Lyra hadn't been able to see the Specter, of course, but they could guess what had happened. Ty Lee, on the other hand, who also seemed unable to see it, still looked baffled.

Azula straightened up. "I believe I am going to enter this place," she said. "It's fascinating; I wish to study the beings and the place they come from."

"We don't know anything at all about these creatures," said Colonel Mongke fearfully. "Surely it would be death to go through."

"Perhaps," said Azula, "but I think someone might know a bit more than we do."

She created a fireball in her hand and knelt by Will, forcing his head up and holding the fireball under his chin. "Tell us everything you know about the creatures," she commanded.

"They're called Specters," Will said, very conscious of the flames warming his flesh. He wasn't a good enough liar to deceive someone like Azula, and in any case he didn't see too much harm in telling her about the Specters; she might be dissuaded from entering Cittàgazze or—even better—be devoured by Specters. "They feed on... They feed on the souls of adults."

Colonel Mongke turned pale. "They eat...souls?"

Azula had noticed something else, though. "Did you say the souls of _adults_?"

"Yes," said Will. "They like mature souls. Children can't even see them."

Everyone looked at Ty Lee, who still looked quite confused.

"Does this mean they won't harm Ty Lee?" Azula asked Will.

"If she can't see them, they won't touch her."

Azula stared into his eyes a moment longer, and then she stood up. "He's telling the truth," she said. "Ty Lee, you will be my companion. Come with me through the window." She turned to Mai. "Mai, I need you to stay here with the Rough Rhinos and guard those children. Take them to my father." Then she glared at the Rough Rhinos. "You will obey Mai as if she were me. If she has any complaint about you, you will face my wrath."

Colonel Mongke looked nervously at Mai, who smirked back.

Finally, Azula looked directly at Lyra and Will. "Farewell, demons," she said.

The three girls exchanged quiet good-byes, and Azula and Ty Lee ducked through the window. A few seconds later, the sound of a jet of fire came through the window. The sound slowly became distant as the two girls walked away.

With Azula's departure, a great fearful weight seemed to have lifted, but they were far from safe. Mai and the Rough Rhinos were still here, and planning to take the children to this mysterious Fire Lord. The travelling party rode a mile or two away from the window, still deep in the forest, to another clearing where they stopped to set up camp. Will and Lyra were tossed onto the ground.

"Lyra," said Will in a low voice. "How are you? All right?"

Unable to speak due to the perennial gag, Lyra nodded.

"Where's Pan? Can he talk?"

In response, a small mouse crawled out of Lyra's shirt pocket. "We're alright," he whispered. "You?"

"I'm fine," said Will. "Have you got any ideas?"

"No," said the mouse sadly. "We've been going over it since we got captured, but we can't think of a plan. Do you think we can escape?"

"If I had the knife, maybe. But how can I get it with my legs and hands tied up?"

The mouse crawled back to Lyra, and the girl and her dæmon comforted one another as best they could.

"It's going to be all right," said Will. "We're going to get out of this."

But for the life of him, he couldn't see how.

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><p>...<p>

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><p><strong>Preview of Chapter Five ("What the Forest Hides"): <strong>_"Get out of here, kid," said Mai. She looked sour, like she was doing this against her better judgment. Will's heart leapt with hope. "Thank you," he whispered._


	5. What the Forest Hides

Author's Note: **To recap, the dynamic duo has been captured and is in the custody of the Rough Rhinos (and Mai), Azula and Ty Lee are trudging around Ci'gazze, and the Gaang is off messing around somewhere. Serafina Pekkala and Lee Scoresby haven't made an appearance yet, but they will. Things are about to seriously speed up.**

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><p>...<p>

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><p>The Rhinos were setting up camp. Will watched dejectedly as they gathered wood for a fire and Colonel Mongke set it alight. They didn't have tents, but rather slept on mats on the ground; the fire kept wild animals away, and it didn't seem very rainy. Lyra and Will didn't get mats.<p>

Will was tied to a tree, his wrists and ankles bound as ever. Lyra was in the same situation on the other side of the Rough Rhinos' clearing, with the addition of her cloth gag. They looked at each other across the fire.

The man named Kahchi shoved in front of Will, trampling his feet and showering him with bits of kindling, muttering something about prisoners not having to do any work. Will sat silently. His left hand throbbed ceaselessly.

"You're bleeding pretty bad, kid," said a voice very close to him.

He wrenched around, and saw the girl called Mai looking at his injured hand, from which blood was dripping through the soaked bandage onto the grass.

"Really? I didn't notice," said Will scathingly.

Mai glared at him coolly. "Fine. I guess you like it that way."

Will blinked, surprised. Was she offering to dress his wound?

"Wait," he said. "I'm sorry. Er..." He held out his hand. The bandage was soaked to the point of uselessness.

"Do you have another bandage?" Mai asked.

He shook his head. "The Rhinos sold all our supplies."

Mai took the waist of Will's black T-shirt and ripped off a strip of fabric. "This is a weird shirt," she said. "Where'd you get it?"

"My mother made it," Will lied.

Mai unwrapped the old bandage and began to wind the new one around Will's hand. As she did this, her robeish sleeves fell down her arms to reveal an odd metallic bracelet on each wrist. They didn't look like they were there for the sake of fashion. They seemed to have some sort of spring-loaded mechanism in them, and each bracelet was ringed with long, thin darts in metal holsters. He imagined those darts being shot at him and tried not to shudder.

Mai tied the new bandage quite tightly to stop the bleeding, making Will grit his teeth. "There," she said. She let go and the pain subsided a bit.

"Thank you," said Will.

Mai stood up and said "I'm going hunting" to Colonel Mongke, and then went off into the woods, leaving Will to his thoughts. He'd got the sense, somehow, that Azula's friends were not as heartless as Azula herself. Perhaps it was their dialect—Azula's speech was pompous and overbearing, but Mai and Ty Lee spoke in a more casual and somehow less threatening way. Mai's helpful gesture had given Will a wisp of hope.

It was late evening when she came back with a quarter dozen ferrety animals slung over her shoulders and one of the thick-set animals Will and Lyra had encountered on their first night in the forest. "Three fire ferrets and a boar-coon," she said. "I like them roasted."

She tossed her prey on the ground in front of Colonel Mongke. Mongke looked at her for a moment like he was going to toss them back at her, but seemed to remember that he had to obey her under pain of Azula's wrath. "Go get some sticks, Kahchi," he grumbled.

They gutted the animals and stuck them on spits made out of sticks from the forest, and roasted them over the campfire. After many minutes of cooking, during which Will's and Lyra's stomachs rumbled ever louder, the meat was removed and cut up after it cooled. Each of the Rough Rhinos took a portion of the food, and then Mai took hers. Will saw Colonel Mongke give her a contemptuous look; evidently he thought she'd taken too much.

Mai saw the look as well. "Keep your earrings on, Colonel Jarhead," she said. "It's not all for me." She walked over to Lyra and tossed down some of the meat.

"The prisoners?" shouted Mongke. "Are you—!"

"Shut it!" Mai shouted back. "They can't go to the Fire Lord if they die of starvation."

"But—"

"Maybe we should tell Princess Azula," said Mai in a bored voice. "I bet she could sort this out."

Even by the light of the campfire, Will could see Mongke blanching.

After Lyra, Mai gave Will a piece of the boar-coon's leg. She sat down near him, eating her own portion and warming herself by the fire. Will waited until none of the Rough Rhinos seemed to be paying attention, and then he leaned forward and spoke to her.

"Listen," he said, "I want to thank you for being so kind to us." He'd spent all day thinking about how to say this, and he was still afraid he would make a mistake. "I know it doesn't mean we're friends, but...I appreciate it."

Mai tore a strip of fire ferret meat off the bone. After she had finished chewing, she said "It wasn't kindness. We need you in good shape."

"You're taking us to the Fire Lord," said Will. "Why?"

"Because of the window," said Mai. "Nobody's seen anything like that. The Fire Lord needs to know about this."

"You don't understand," Will said softly. "We're not powerful or dangerous. We're not involved in all this. We just got caught up in it."

Mai didn't turn to face him, but she did seem to be listening. Will felt tentatively hopeful.

"We're only children," he continued. "Harmless. We don't want anything to do with this. Please—help us." Mai had stopped eating. Will couldn't see her face. "You're tough," he said, "and hard, but I don't think you're cruel. You're better than the Rough Rhinos. You know it. All we want is to get out of this. Just…let us."

Mai turned her head slightly toward him, and he thought she might say something—but then she stood up and moved away. Will sighed.

Soon, Mai and the Rough Rhinos went to sleep. Will looked across the fire and saw that Lyra was asleep too. He looked dejectedly at the ropes binding him, and closed his eyes.

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><p>Someone was shaking him. He opened his eyes sleepily.<p>

The campfire had gone out; the clearing was littered with sleeping bodies. But one of the mats was empty. Mai was there, in front of him, shaking him awake.

"What are you doing?" said Will. He rubbed his wrists—the ropes were gone.

"Get out of here, kid," said Mai. She looked sour, like she was doing this against her better judgment.

Will's heart leapt with hope. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Yeah, whatever."

Will stood up. "My friend—"

"You can get her too. Here—this is yours." She reached down to remove the subtle knife from her belt.

There was a drowsy groan from one of the sleeping figures. Mai and Will both whipped around to see Kahchi waking up.

"Oh no," said Will.

Kahchi looked from Mai to the escaped Will. "What is this? What's going on?"

Mai flashed Will an apologetic look, and then she jabbed her hand out at him. Will heard a metallic _click _and several tiny objects swishing through the air, and suddenly there were darts flying toward him, and then he was pinned by his clothes to a tree trunk.

"He was trying to run off!" Mai cried. "He got free!"

"Why, you..." Kahchi snarled and advanced on Will. Will tugged, but the darts had him pinned strongly to the tree.

Suddenly there was a _swish_ and a _thud_, and then there was an arrow stuck in the trunk of the tree above Will's head.

"What the—?" Kahchi looked around fearfully for the source of the arrow. Will's heart began to pound.

A second arrow appeared—this one in Kahchi's chest. Will cried out in alarm. He saw Mai slip quietly into the shadows, dart holsters at the ready, as the dying Kahchi fell to the ground.

The forest around them exploded to life. A dozen bodies jumped out of the branches, attacking the campsite. They pounced on the sleeping men, who wouldn't have stood a chance if they were less skilled. As it was, the Rough Rhinos were experts, and even being just woken from sleep they were a match for their attackers. Will saw a blur of bodies and weapons as the fight flared up; dust clouds billowed into the air, confusing the scene still further.

In the chaos, one of the attackers—a boy, only a few years older than Will—ran up to him and wrenched the darts pinning him out of the tree. He offered Will his hand.

"Thanks," said Will warily as he got to his feet.

The boy's reply was a grin before drawing two swords with hooked tips and jumping into the fray. Will saw him cut the ropes tethering the rhinos, and then the rhinos were stampeding around the clearing.

"Lyra!" Will shouted, casting his eyes about for her. "Where are you?"

At that moment, a bird flew up out of the fray and called "Over here!" Will fought his way over, ducking the flying body of Ogodei, and finally saw Lyra. She was on the ground, her hands and feet still bound and her mouth still gagged. Pantalaimon swooped down and pecked the gag out of her mouth.

"Look out!" she cried at once.

Will turned just in time to see Colonel Mongke charging at them, shooting a barrage of fireballs in their direction. Will grabbed Lyra and pulled her out of the way. The boy who had freed him then came out of nowhere, somersaulting over the Colonel like an acrobat, and used his hook-swords to yank the Colonel's feet out from under him as he flipped through the air. Mongke fell to the ground, and the boy put the rounded end of one of swords to his face, standing over him.

"Beat you," he said, grinning. Lyra and Will stared in admiration.

The boy flipped the sword around and bopped the handle on Mongke's head; Mongke's eyes closed.

Suddenly there was a metallic chinking sound behind him, and he turned to see Mai. She flung her wrist out, and the mechanical holster ejected four darts toward the boy with the hook-swords. The boy ducked and then lunged forward and swiped at her with the swords. They didn't hit her—but then when he pulled them back, they hooked around her holster bracelets.

He grinned.

Yanking the swords back, the boy broke her holster bracelets into pieces. Mai looked at her wrists angrily, but she had more tricks up her sleeve—literally. Seeming to produce them from nowhere, she started throwing a series of wicked-looking daggers at the boy. She hadn't been exaggerating; her aim was terrifyingly precise. The boy was skilled as well, however, and each stiletto thrown by Mai either missed its mark or bounced off his hookswords. One of them struck the ground near Will, and he hastily picked it up and used it to cut Lyra's bonds.

"Thanks, Will," she said, rubbing her wrist.

Mai reached into her belt for the next dagger—but her hand found nothing. She was out of throwing knives.

Mai looked around cagily; Will could see the franticness in her eyes. Hardly a one of her daggers had met its mark, and now she had run out. She was desperate.

She threw the subtle knife.

The teenage boy pulled off yet another spectacular dodge, and the knife hit a large rock at the edge of the clearing—and sank right up the hilt in it.

Mai's eyes widened with astonishment, and Will knew what she was going to do, and he cried "No!" and he tried to stop her but she was too fast. She vaulted over the children, snatched the knife, and fled.

"No!" Will yelled again. "The knife!"

But she was gone. The knife was lost, just like the alethiometer.

Most of the Rough Rhinos had been run off; the one who remained, Colonel Mongke, was in a daze. The boy who had led the attack sheathed his hook-swords and walked up to Will and Lyra. "Are you guys okay?" he asked.

"Yes," said Lyra shakily. "Th-thank you."

More people, all of them children or teenagers, gathered around them. They were all dirty, wild, and heavily armed, with mischievous faces smeared with war paint, and they all seemed to look to the boy with the hook-swords as their leader.

"Who are you?" Lyra asked.

The boy stuck a blade of wheat between his teeth and grinned cockily. "My name's Jet, and these are my Freedom Fighters."

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><p>...<p>

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><p><strong>Preview of Chapter Six ("The Freedom Fighters"): <strong>_"What exactly is so important about this compass?" Sneers asked suspiciously._

_"Or that knife of yours," added Smellerbee._

_Jet came a little closer. "Yeah, I'd like to know that too."_


End file.
